Thoughts which don’t fit in 140 characters.

In Search of Better Brand Names

I have fallen in love with watching television due to the brilliant quality that Tata Sky manages on our vintage decade old BPL television. See the picture and sound quality, and you will be convinced that you should also shift to DTH (Direct to home). This segment is very Big and Digital these days. By the way, that is also the name of the two new competitors that have launched in the DTH space. Surely, there is a big crisis of new brand names when people still launch products with the name â€œDigitalâ€ years after even our bikes engines became digital.

I was recently working on deciding a name for a project that I am doing with a couple of my friends and we also felt it unexplainably tough to come up with a proper name. But, I hope with an advertising budget of Rs. 1200 crore â€“ a combined figure for all DTH operators, there could have been more effort. Now, Reliance ADA (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) has named all its entertainment sings â€“ movie production, distribution, music label, FM radio etc. as Big. So, you have big music and big movies………….. I donâ€™t know what you feel, but I find Big very odd. I didnâ€™t know when using common names as your brand became the latest trend among brand managers.

If this surprised me, imagine what would have been my reaction the first time I saw the advertisement of Digital TV. I thought it is just another feature of their product until I realised that it was actually the name of the brand. Unlike Relianceâ€™s Big, digital TV has no logo or stylised â€œdigitalâ€ text also. Is the economic recession responsible for this too?

No, I donâ€™t think so. This has become a trend â€“ an unexplainable one. Why will someone name his work so shabbily? Earlier too, we have Big Bazaar and while roaming through the Main market area of Ranchi, one of the better shops was named Big Shop. Maybe, it is all about just how big you are!

If companies are doing it for the sake of easy recall among the lesser affluent class, they should have named it Airtel TV, or Reliance TV â€“ that is way better.
I managed to visit both Reliance Mart as well as Reliance Fresh in this trip. The earlier is based in a large double-storey building while the latter is a much smaller version. Both are part of Mukesh Ambaniâ€™s Reliance Retail. But I wonder if the same group has been behind designing the logo and look of both the companies, Mart looks very cheap and has a bad shade of Red. Someone really watched Om Shanti Om a lot of times before coming up with the staff dress. On the other hand, Fresh looks cool in green (also green n fresh â€“ nice combination).

I have read many a times about the huge scarcity of movie and television scripts. Looks like the problem has spread to the advertising and branding mediums also.